James Earl Hamilton Marsden - Biography

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JAMES EARL HAMILTON MARSDEN
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BIOGRAPHY
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James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran
He was the only son of James Hamilton, 1st Lord
Hamilton, and his wife, Mary Stewart, Countess of
Arran. Mary was a daughter of King James II of
Scotland and his Queen consort Mary of Guelders,
and was a sister of King James III of
Scotland. Hamilton succeeded to his fathers
lordship and inherited his lands when his father
died in 1479.In 1489 his first cousin King James
IV made him Sheriff of Lanark, a position his
father had previously had, and a Scottish Privy
Counsellor.2 By 28 April 1490 he was married to
Elizabeth Home, daughter of Alexander Home, 2nd
Lord Home. Between April and August 1502, he
commanded a naval fleet sent to help King Hans of
Denmark, James IVs uncle, defeat a Swedish
rebellion. He negotiated Jamess marriage
to Margaret Tudor and was present at the wedding
on 8 August 1503. On the same day Lord Hamilton
was created Earl of Arran, with the formal grant
three days later, for his nearness of blood and
his services at the time of the marriage. He was
appointed Lieutenant General of Scotland and in
May 1504 commanded a naval expedition to suppress
an uprising in the Western Isles. In September
1507, James IV sent Hamilton as his ambassador on
a diplomatic mission to the court of Louis XII of
France. When returning in early 1508, he was
briefly detained in the Kingdom of
England by Henry VII, who was suspicious of a
renewal of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and
France.
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When Henry VIII of England joined the War of the
League of Cambrai by invading France in 1513,
Scotland came under pressure to support France
against England. Hamilton was given command of
the Scottish naval fleet. He first sailed
to Ulster and attacked Carrickfergus, the main
English stronghold there. The fleet then sailed
to France, arriving there in September 1513, too
late to be much help as the Scottish army had
been defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field in
England on 9 September, with James IV being
killed in battle. During the minority of King
James V he opposed Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of
Angus and the English party. He plotted against
the Regent John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany. He
was president of the council of regency during
Albanys absence in France from 1517 to 1520. He
was defeated in an attempt to overpower Angus in
the streets of Edinburgh in 1520, a riot known as
Cleanse the Causeway. He was again a member of
the council of regency in 1522 and Lieutenant of
the South. He joined the Queen Dowager Margaret
Tudor in ousting Albany and proclaiming James V
in 1524. Hamilton was compelled by Henry VIII of
England to readmit Angus to the council. He
supported Angus against John Stewart, 3rd Earl of
Lennox in 1526 at the Battle of Linlithgow
Bridge, but on the escape of James V from
the Douglases, Hamilton received Bothwell from
Anguss forfeited estates.